The careful reader of Scripture, who by divine grace, in measure, knows his own heart, as well as the state of mankind at large, knows by its testimony, and feels too, that man has departed from God; that he is guilty, and as far as he is concerned, irretrievably lost; that God must work in a new way to bring a clean thing out of an unclean; a way which is wholly impossible for man.
Since man fell from God, and from his original condition, there has been no period of the world’s history where He left Himself without witness—not only of His eternal power and godhead in created things, in the revelations which He gave, and by means of the line of God’s election and calling out of the earth, of persons standing in special and eternal relationship with Himself.
Again, He has been dealing in various ways with man, from the call of Abraham, and subsequently with Israel under law. There were individual dealings with the elect before this call of the “father of all them that believe.” These dealings with individuals, as well as those of a larger scale with nations, have ever been a fruitful theme to the student of Scripture. Upon these it is not my present task to enter.
We find an expression used in Hebrews 5:1313For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. (Hebrews 5:13), referring to those whom the writer would warn and exhort as to their spiritual state, as not answering to the present actings of God which were before his mind. He says, “For every one that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.”
To this expression, “Unskillful in the word of righteousness,” I would draw special attention. If asked to explain its meaning I would say, It is the right relations in which everything stands with God at any given moment—the faithful, responding to which, are thereby “perfect.”
We shall now enter upon the blessed field of the Word, to examine some examples of this in detail.
When the earth was filled with violence and corruption in the days before the flood, and when God was about to destroy the world that then was, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord: be was a just man and a perfect; and Noah walked with God. To him God revealed His intentions, and commanded him to build an ark. He gave specific directions in detail as to this to Noah. The world stood in certain conditions in His sight; and God stood towards it in the relation of Judge. The word of righteousness for the moment, as revealed to Noah, not only took in the state of things before him, and God’s attitude towards it, but these directions to the man who had found grace in His sight.
Acting on them, Noah stood as God’s witness, opposed to the spirit of the age; and, skilful in the word of righteousness, he not only built an ark to the saving of his house, but he was also a preacher of righteousness to the ungodly world around.
Now these directions to Noah contained much deep instruction to the faithful in after days, although they would not require to act as he did. They would be instructed as to God’s ways, and His faithfulness as to His own in an apostate scene; and they would see the results for the saint in his implicit obedience to what was then enjoined. To have used such instructions for building the ark themselves would prove them but “babes;” while for him to have done so betokened one of “full age,” or “perfect,” his senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
Another day came. The world had wholly gone into idolatry, which in antediluvian days was not its sin. Man’s evil heart went out in unrestrained wickedness, in which angels joined, till the foul scene cried out for the judgment of God. Satan now possessed his heart with the fears of judgment, such as that which had passed, and he caused him to worship demons. (cf. Joshua 24:22And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods. (Joshua 24:2); 1 Corinthians 10:2020But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. (1 Corinthians 10:20); cited from Deuteronomy 32:1717They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not. (Deuteronomy 32:17).)
Abraham was then chosen to be God’s perfect man on earth; called out from country, kindred, and father’s house, he became the vessel of His promises—the one to whom the word of righteousness was communicated. He might have known that which had governed Noah, at another day; he might have been instructed in the deliverance of that man of God. Still it would have been of no avail to him in his day, so far as his being governed by it: he had his own path, and he followed it, walking before the Almighty as a “perfect” man.
I do not propose to examine his failure in the path, however blessed were the lessons he was taught; my object being to show that all along the history of the world which had departed from God, certain revelations were made, and certain conditions of soul are to be found, which show the relations in which the faithful—the perfect—stood with Him, suited to the revelation given by God, and occasioned by, and needed in the midst of the scene, as God viewed it. Whenever the saint was not governed by such, he lapsed into the condition of the “babe;” he had become such a one as had need of milk, and not of the strong meat which belonged to those of full age.
Remark, too, that the word here used for “babe” (Hebrews 5:1313For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. (Hebrews 5:13)) is not used for one betokening a right moral, or spiritual state of soul. It is not the same word as that used by the Apostle John (1 John 2:1313I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father. (1 John 2:13)) for a true and right state of soul before the Father. A babe, with him, knows the Father; he has the spirit of adoption, and calls Him such in a known relation. The Galatians could be told by Paul, of the day when he himself, with others of his people after the flesh, were babes, such as they had “become” whom he addressed in Hebrews 5 (See Gal. 4:33Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: (Galatians 4:3).) But when they had received the adoption of sons (v. 5), this was no more their true state in God’s sight.
The Ephesians, too—indeed the faithful of Christ Jesus at all times, are exhorted to be no more babes, tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine. Rather would the apostle desire that they should all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect (or full-grown) man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:13, 1413Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: 14That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; (Ephesians 4:13‑14)).
But to return. I might trace the testimony of the word of righteousness further. The law was given, and was broken. The perfect man Moses, knew what to do with the tent of the congregation, when he pitched it outside, and afar off from the camp of guilty Israel. And so through the Judges, and prophets, and kings of Israel and of Judah. Through the captivity and the return from captivity, and the long dreary days which then ensued till the close of the books of the Old Testament. It might perhaps be traced, in measure also, through the days that followed; though the data should be taken from the books which are not the Word of God.
We will now pass on to the day when the Baptist’s awakening blast of the silver trumpet of God, drew the crowds from Jerusalem and around, to the waters of Jordan, to his baptism and the confession of their sins; surrendering every claim or supposed claim to the promises as children of Abraham, they threw themselves on the sovereign mercies of God.
He called on men—Israel, to awaken to the true state of things: to discover the relations in which they and all stood with God: to accept, by faith, their true place in His sight as convicted sinners. His testimony was the word of righteousness for that day. Those “perfect” were they who accepted this and went down to Jordan, judging their condition, owning their sinfulness, and surrendering themselves to God. They were skilful in that word, and were thus, in their generation, going on, pari passu, with God, as His steps advanced towards the end.
Amongst them came Jesus, the Lord. John is conscious that this One who was preferred before him, had no sin to carry to that spot where the “perfect”—the “full grown” were pouring out their souls in confession before God. And so his word to Jesus, “I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?”
Mark, now, the Lord’s reply, “Suffer it to be so now,” said the Saviour, “for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.” Here was One who was “perfect,” both in His own essential nature as God and Man, and in His descent into the waters of Jordan. In this He was “skilful in the word of righteousness.” He had told John that thus it became them both, each in their true moral place, to fulfill all such. If grace was moving in the hearts of men, and leading them down on their faces before God, each sensible of his sins; grace also led the blessed Saviour to the same spot, that He might identify Himself with these first movements of grace in hearts in which God was working. They were, in the sense of their guilt, in the place where divine grace had led them. He was there, pure and spotless, in the same place where divine grace led Him. Both were “perfect”— “full grown,” and in God’s present “ word of righteousness,” each was skilful in the suited way. To this the Lord would seem to allude in His reply to John.
He was the perfect “meat-offering” now presented to God. The fine flour of His true humanity; mingled with oil, as conceived by the Holy Ghost in His mother’s womb. As the unleavened cake, too, anointed with oil, when the Holy Ghost, descending in bodily shape like a dove, alighted on Him. The frankincense of this pure meat-offering ascended from the waters of Jordan to the heavens; and they now opened, for the first time, and the savor of the frankincense entered the Father’s presence, evoking the greeting, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
It is as the pure meat-offering, I conceive, that He is seen in Psalms 16 He is there as it were a Priest waving it before the Lord. We hear Him in the waters of Jordan, as He looked round on those in whom grace was working, and looked up to God in lowliness, speaking the words, “My goodness extendeth not to thee; but to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight.” To such His heart went out in joy, when identifying Himself with the workings of divine grace and truth which moved in, and brought them there.
The day would come when the Son of the Father would lift up His eyes to these heavens, which now opened and looked down upon Him, and converse with the Father, and pray, in the hearing of His own, that they might know from His lips the mutual thoughts of the Father and the Son about them (John 17 passim).
I can conceive nothing more deeply impressive than this. I can understand the Lord, when Satan would try to frustrate His purposes about His people (Num. 22, 24), reasoning with the enemy, or his instrument Balaam, and saying, as it were, “Well, I must hear from your mouth what my thoughts are about my people.” And the enemy tells the Lord their deep, full blessing, and how no one can reverse it, for they are blessed! This I can understand. I can understand by grace the Son’s revelation of His Father: the Spirit’s reasonings on the work of Christ—His person, His offices. But when in spirit I stand by in the calm of that moment, just before the storm burst in all its fury on the head of Christ, as anticipated in the garden, and consummated at the cross, and am called to hearken to the Son—not reserving His communication with His Father till He was gone away from the scene where human ears could listen to the divine intercourse between them; to hearken to Him who would have His joy fulfilled in them (John 17:1313And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. (John 17:13)), telling forth His thoughts and His wishes for His people, in their hearing—as He was now presenting them as sons before the Father; then indeed, I see that the depths and springs of divine grace far surpass what I have learned, though I see clearly, and with a thankful heart, that there are depths that I have yet to fathom, and love that I have to taste for myself, which is the love of Christ I know, and yet which passes knowledge.
The Lord entered His service (for He was both Lord and servant too), and proposed that man should know his God, and welcome Him when He came into his midst in love. Though man was unfit to be with God through sin, yet God would stoop to be with man, that He might save him from his sins. The word of righteousness then was, that He was now to be received. The crisis had come, and to receive or reject the Son of God closed his history. To build an ark might do in Noah’s day; to leave country, kindred, and father’s house, might do in Abraham’s; and so on, as we pass along the line of God’s relations and dealings with man on earth. To bow in confession of sins, stripped of pretensions as children of Abraham, might be the true place in John Baptist’s time. Now these would not do: the “perfect,” “full-grown,” should still press on, pari passu, with God. Trust in Him who was there; receive Him; leave all for Him; cleave to Him, was now the word. He would do all the rest—whether for time and temporal things, or eternity and the soul’s relationship with God.
How few were the “perfect” in His day! Yet all that would, heard His voice and followed Him, though the hopes seemed blasted which they had formed, and none could tell what would be on the morrow, for which they were to take no thought: sufficient unto each day would be the evil thereof.
The work of the cross was ended. Christ was rejected by His own, and by the world. He died and was buried; He rises again from amongst the dead; is seen of His witnesses for forty days; He ascends as Man on high, by the right hand of God exalted; from thence He sends the Holy Ghost, as exalted Man and Head of His body the Church, now about to be formed. The Gospel is sounded out to the self-ruined Jew, and is to reach onwards to the uttermost parts of the earth, to as many as the Lord our God should call. Man was called to repent—to bow to the grace that so freely acted, to accept the place of a sinner pardoned; as before, by the word of righteousness, sounded by John the Baptist, he was called to bow and own in faith that he was a convicted, self-ruined sinner.
But more. In very deed God Himself had come to dwell with the redeemed. No longer was it to be occasional visits to His saints, as in patriarchal days; or as He dwelt in Israel’s midst, in a tent, while they were wanderers; or in a temple built with hands, in the land of Israel, till the glory departed from their midst. Nor again, was it to tabernacle for awhile amongst men, as He did in the Word made flesh. It was now the Spirit of God, sent down from on high to take up His abode in a new sort of dwellingplace—the bodies of His saints individually, and in their collective midst; to unite, to solace, to lead, to edify, to abide with them forever, while they sojourned on earth in their pilgrim days, until the Church entered the glory of her Lord, to abide with Him forever.
The Spirit’s presence on earth was now the great cardinal truth of Christianity; and this, as flowing through the cross of the Lord Jesus, and the mighty results there wrought out. That cross, which solved every question for God and man, for time and eternity, brought glory to Him and salvation to His people. The Man who hung there was now on the throne of God—dispenser of all blessings, and wielding all power in heaven and earth. There He was for a time, till the purposes of God’s counsels were consummated, and the Church of God gathered out from every people, and tongue, and kindred, and nation, to reign with Him over the earth.
This was an immense step in God’s ways—one that would no longer leave His people in the condition in which they were at periods antecedent to this time. They may have been, and were hitherto “perfect” in their generation and time, according to the truths then made known—the word of righteousness for each period that had passed. But now all was consummated which had been counseled, or promised, and the “perfection” of that day would now no longer be the response to the present dealings of the Lord.
The great starting point of the interval through which we now pass, was a Man, in God’s glory, who occupied God’s throne, who had wrought the redemption of His people, and His sending the Spirit personally to the earth, to gather out those whose sins He had borne and put away—to form His body, His Church, His bride.
Christendom then ensued, in her sad and blotted history. God’s truths of the present interval were well-nigh blotted out by her corruption and iniquity, as far as man and Satan could do. Her history still runs on till its end in judgment. During that history God has raised a warning voice, a trumpet-tongued testimony from time to time, which, in its way, might be in a sense termed the “word of righteousness,” for that moment. The hearts of the faithful have responded to such testimonies from God, and have been the “perfect,” so to say, of their time. But to cleave to such in an after day, when God had still continued to bring forth His word of righteousness, and make known the right relations in which everything stood to Him, is but to “become a babe,” and to refuse the “strong meat” of the “perfect” of the day which followed.
For instance: —To hold fast to the truths propounded by the Reformers—those great vessels which He then raised up to give forth His word of righteousness; and to refuse the further light and truth with which He has shined at later periods—even in the days in which we live, is but to betray a childhood in those who do so, which is truly to be condemned. It is not that they are called upon to deny those testimonies which they uttered, and which they were His instruments to revive; far be the thought. Nay, but to be thankful, truly thankful for them, and yet to haste their feet in willing steps onward in God’s truths, as step by step He gave forth His word of righteousness as the moment suited for the same. An Abraham might learn true and blessed lessons from a Noah’s path and God’s then revealed “word” to him. Still it would not be a denial of it, or a refusal of the same, to be governed by the fresh “word” to himself at a later day. Nor do those who might be termed the perfect of the present day deny the truths uttered by the Reformers—nay, they glory in them, while they go on responding to the word for the present day, and hold themselves in readiness for the next “word of righteousness” to which He may draw attention, and which He who foresaw the end from the beginning had revealed, in view of every exigence, in His word.
Thus the “word of righteousness” in which the writer of Hebrews would have us “skilful,” makes known the present relations in which all things stand with God at any given moment. He looks for a ready response to such in the hearts and ways of His people, who are the “perfect” of the time: thus they are found in the current of the Spirit’s actions and present ministry on earth, and are not satisfied with the things, however precious, which He has ministered in days gone by, and then forget that He continues with and in the Church, constantly and daily to take of the things of Christ and show them to their souls. How dry and worthless would creeds and formularies be to such: to those who looked for the fresh unfolding of the glories and excellencies of Jesus; and who love to learn more of Him whom they have not seen, yet have learned to love, to worship, and adore!
The fitness of this expression— “Unskillful in the word of righteousness”—will be easily seen, as used by the Spirit in the Epistle to the Hebrews. There was need of rebuke and encouragement from the Lord to those who were addressed. They were resting satisfied with certain elementary truths with regard to Christ. The Spirit would condemn this resting satisfied with such. They should go on to know Christ in glory, and all that flowed from the knowledge of Him there, and the results to them; in other words, to “go on to perfection.” The very absence of such progress causes him to raise the solemn, warning words of the early part of Hebrews 6, knowing that retrogression in spiritual things may lead to their surrender, and the sad discovery that he who once held them, did so but to his own destruction, because only intellect and mind were at work, and no true quickening of soul was there.
He would encourage the feeblest living one, and warn the most instructed professor, filling the one with “strong consolation,” and telling the other that, having made known the blessed truths of Christianity, God had no more to reveal, for He Himself was known, and His Spirit given to carry down the blessed things of Christ from heaven to earth, in His absence on high. If such were only used by intellect, and no living faith at work in the soul, “it was impossible to renew such unto repentance.”